2002 Pasadena Xena Convention

DISCLAIMER: The following is a purely subjective view of what happened during the convention weekend. Most quotes are paraphrased or simply my own impressions of the moment.


My Report: Day 2 - Part 2

Alexandra Tydings was probably the most visibly distressed of all the actors there this weekend. She didn't host the show Friday evening as scheduled, and all day, Saturday, she looked like death itself. Her face was completely ashen, very little make up, totally whipped of spirit. That's not to say she didn't put forth a great effort to focus on the job at hand and continue the show. However, from the moment she first set foot on stage it was obvious how devastated she was. She barely got through her greeting to us before she choked up and had to take a moment to compose herself. Somehow, she managed and put on that gorgeous smile of hers, answered all of our questions, and shared her love for us all, as is always evident anytime she addresses the fans. Nevertheless, she was certainly in great pain and had a most difficult weekend. So cheers to Alex, and all the other actors, for being such amazing troopers. "The show mush go on!"

A few times during her 30 minutes, several people in the front rows and even a few who went up to ask questions gave her tissues. At one point she remarked, "Do I look that bad?" You just wanted to hug her... and also keep her talking, which got kind of difficult a few times because not too many people asked questions. However, she seemed to feel better when she was talking and focusing on something... something other than Kevin. She truly broke my heart.

At any rate, Alex got a grip quickly at the start, and maintained a strong focus throughout her session. When Alex found out about Kevin, she knew she wanted to do something to help, so she went into her closet to see if there was anything she could auction off. She found only half of her Dite costume... the bottom half... plus the armbands, a pair of earrings and a necklace she had worn with the costume. She hoped that this was appropriate to do, but she wanted to give something to his family. So she auctioned it off for something like 3,500 dollars, I believe. Quite awesome! Moreover, her humbleness about the whole thing was just touchingly endearing. What a beautiful soul!

She talked quite a bit about Hourglass. It's coming along very nicely. Steve Sears is now on board as a producer, so now they have a "real writer" working on it (her words). At one point, she had taken their idea to Rob for a look-see and some advice. He loved the whole thing, but warned them that it would take a very long time to get it produced. She was like, "yeah, yeah I know." However, inside she was thinking, "Ha we'll be shooting tomorrow." Nevertheless, it turns out that he's right. It will take some time to get all of the needed financial backing and everything else in place, but they are more than determined. Someone asked her about possible subtext in the show and she explained that she and Claudia are 100% into subtext. They definitely want it in the show. It's part of their ideal vision. However, producing a TV show is a total collaborative effort. You get other producers coming in and saying, "Oh I love it, and we could do this and this and this." And you go, "yeah that sounds great"; and then the executives come in and say, "Oh that's great, but you could also do this, this and this." And your like, "That's true. I hadn't thought about that." Moreover, you have writers offering other ideas and so on and so on. However, that's the price you pay for working in this business... For it is a business. Nevertheless, as far as she and Claudia are concerned, subtext is part of their ultimate vision and that won't change. They're doing whatever they can to see that it happens.

Another person asked her about her extensive education and what affect it's had on her acting career. The answer? "Nothing. She attending Brown University and was one of those dark, moody people wearing all black and colored hair, who dissected and analyzed everything about film and media. She started acting by helping friends with student films and such. Therefore, school, itself, taught her nothing about acting. She's not knocking education for it helps you figure out who you are or can be, but when you're auditioning, the casting director could care less about your educational background. This question was expanded on with the inquiry as to how she feels about being identified with Aphrodite's persona as a blonde bimbo. She, of course, has always thought that there was much more to Dite than meets the eye. The audience agreed with her through applause and cheers. Obviously, she hopes that her acting legacy will not be that of a live Barbie doll. Thus, she's trying very hard to develop her own projects.

I commented to her how much I've enjoyed and appreciated Dite's growing relationship with Gabby (and how some of my favorite Dite scenes are those with Gab in Punchline). It's also a fact that they developed a strong relationship between Dite and Iolaus. I asked her, "What's Aphrodite's deal with sidekicks?" Was it consciously written to develop that way? Was it the natural connection and obvious chemistry between actors? What? She honestly didn't know for certain, but her thoughts were that in both cases there were times when both Lucy and Kevin were injured and to cover that, eps were written for the sidekicks to go solo. They needed additional support, so they brought her in to help in the adventures. There were also the situations where the heroine/hero was pared off with the villain, and she was brought in to pare off with the sidekick as an alternative plot or subplot. I also assured her that the actor chemistry thang was definitely a factor too, for she played very well with both of them.

One more humorous note: Someone asked her which Aphrodite nickname she preferred, Aphroflighty or Nimphodite (or some such silliness), and she said her favorite is Aphrodyky which someone bestowed on her at some point. The audience naturally approved of her choice. In addition, after my question about Dite and Gab's chemistry, someone asked her if Dite had the hots for Gab. Her response was "Absolutely!" Of course, she thinks Dite had the hots for everyone - good looking that is.

After Alex was done she said her thank-you's and goodbye's, as did we (with several We-love-you's thrown in) and I scurried off to a quick bathroom break. It wasn't quick enough, however. Because, a minute after Alex had left the stage they announce Alexis and he made his [presumably] elaborate entrance, which obviously I missed. I could hear the audience just go wild, and I'm like "What the fu-?" So I rushed out there and *Wham!* There was this woman...er...man...er... DRAG QUEEN on stage. LOL!!! Alexis was in full make-up, long, blonde wig, tight, purple, swade pants and matching top that showed off his lovely mid-drift and huge bazooms... Quite a gorgeous figure!

What a hoot and a half this fella...er...lady...er...performer was. He did the whole drag queen/gay humor and we all loved it. As I said to him when I was getting his autograph, he was a breathe of fresh air in that heavy-hearted room. He was raunchy, insulting, grotesque, rude... and divine. His time on stage was literally a drag queen act, with Xena questions and compliments thrown in. Quite surreal actually. Nevertheless, he was obviously having a blast and so was the audience. I don't remember much but here's what stuck in my brain. Several people complimented him for his performance as Caligula. He explained that after looking up the bastard in his research he decided to go with a more comical/family show approach and not be too literal with the historical realities of the man. His favorite scene to do was the one with LL when X tells him to kill Eve in public for greater affect. In the script, it was a pretty flat dialogue scene, so to spice it up they did it as a tango. He loved that. He admired LL for being so willing to try anything. When asked how it was to work with LL he first did the comical "She's a bitch" kind of thang. Then actually got quite blunt and honest, I thought, stating flat out, "She's the boss." What she says goes. We've always heard people talk about how she "sets the tone" for everyone on set, and all of that, but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone be so straightforward about how controlling she could be when shooting. I actually really liked the honesty of his perspective. Very refreshing.

He was also very open towards questions about his family, which eventually a question or two were asked, but by that time, I was in line for autographs and wasn't paying too much attention to what was being discussed on stage. I just found him fun to watch. He was very funny, open, and entertaining. I liked him a lot.

****
Here's a wonderful description of Alexis' time on stage from Teyali (courtesy of The Tavern Wall):

...it was absolutely surreal, as you say, especially with the specter of Kevin's death standing onstage and all around us... but I just wanted to add a wee bit to the Alexis Arquette section of your report since you were in line and did not get the chance to see the whole spectacle. And I DO mean spectacle. S/he was AMAZING, as you said, and for the first time in the three years I've been attending the Xena convention in Pasadena, I saw an incredible openness to the "gay element," and Alexis strutting around in drag on stage, being him/her slutty divine self really rubbed it in everyone's face, yes this is a queer-friendly show, a queer-friendly space, and we are all here to pay homage to the fans as much as the fans are paying homage to us, and that means you, gay boy, that means you, butch girl, that means I can walk around here, hope I'm not "offending" anyone but not really giving a shit if I do because you love me anyway, and it was explosive. The best part was when that guy who always dresses as Xena came up to the microphone to ask a question and Alexis thought it was a woman; you should have seen his/her reaction. S/he wailed in surprise, s/he ran across the stage, s/he threw herself on the ground and crawled toward the middle of the stage and turned around, offering her lovely rear end to the Xena dude, like she was ready to go, let me have it, baby. It was so too much. Then the two of them took a picture together, and Alexis got him to work on his voice, telling him he needed to tone down the baritone just a little, and the Xena dude softened up. Alexis just tore the place up and I applaud that s/he had the "cojones" to say s/he had "vagina envy." You should have heard the crowd going wild on that one. When someone asked him/her if Lucy had really bitten his lip in TGYK s/he said "oh my god, Lucy is the best kisser," and went into detail about how they had used the "tamest" one of their takes, but that Lucy had really torn his/her lips up with her kisses and that at one point s/he felt her/himself "getting wet," like s/he was having a "lesbian moment" with Lucy. It was indeed surreal, unreal, hyper-real, and really FUNNY. Larger than life and then SOME.

****

Very well put Teyali! I couldn't have said it better. Thankfully, I did get to see all of that and... well...YEAH!

When his time was up it was quite funny to see the audience's reaction. It looked to me as if the entire gold section gave him a standing ovation. The rest of the people stayed in their seats and applauded. Now normally, I was sitting in the middle of the gold section during standing ovations, so I don't know if that was a common occurrence or if the back section just didn't care for his brand of entertainment. I would venture to surmise that the same people, most of who are lesbians, annually occupy much of the gold section. However, that is a completely speculative implication on my part... so I'm just going to move right along now to...

HUDSON!!!

As noted earlier, I cut out of the autograph line just before the Callisto video. But before I did, I was in direct view of the backstage area, where I was able to get a quick sneak peak at my girl, wearing a white bathrobe. A lady in front of me was straining at one point to see if it was indeed HL, "I'm not sure. It could be." I helped her out and assured her, "It is." Soon after Alexis' exit the lights went down and *zoom* I was off and planted firmly in my seat when the goddess arrived on stage.

As expected, the audience went wild and she calmly walked out and stood center stage to let her devoted slaves go horse with cheers and create puddles of drool on the carpet. She came out in an off-white, long, sparkly dress with bare back, arms and upper chest. This is an important visual, esp. after someone asked her to do the Callisto scream. Last year I remember her milking her prep time greatly, but this year she out did herself. Esp. after she announced that she had to prepare her lungs... at which point, she grabbed her breasts and lifted them up. Great laughter engulfed the room, "Believe me. It helps." Even more laughter... Thereafter, much talk and commentary was given to her "lungs." She also got the whole audience to do the yell first, before she did it alone... with no mic... "Chickens!"

However, I'm getting ahead of myself. After her entrance and the standing ovation that followed, we all sat back down and focused on the vision before us. She did her usual long pause while scopin' the joint, followed by her oh-so-sweet-and-sexy, "Hi." Now I can't remember the exact order of things after that, but I do know that she took a few minutes to talk about Kevin. She reassured us that he's ok. He's fine. It's his family we need to think about. She asked us to take a moment of silence and send them our thoughts and prayers, which we did. She told us that the last time she was with him was in Dearborn for the Xena con there, when they did Love Letters together. She remembers it as a wonderful time for her and a great experience to be with him then. And to think that that was the last time she saw him... She paused to collect herself, and then continued by saying what a fun-loving guy he was and that he would want us to have fun this weekend. "So lets have some fun." Which is exactly what we did... lead, of course, by the goddess herself.

This woman's source of giving seems never endless. Not to mention her keen ability to read her audience. She gave us not only what we wanted but exactly what we needed. HER! She posed, she flirted, she played, she teased... it wasn't the high intensity of her last years Q&A, and this time she actually spent more time talking and answering questions, but there was still plenty of the Hudson strut and sass to be had.

I got up to the mic right away, and had an up close and personal view of HL's whole scream experience. Did I mention she has a lovely pair of "lungs"?? While I was up there, in addition to playing with her "lungs" a lot, Hudson played with her dress as well, mentioning that it would be auctioned off... eventually. While playing with her dress and showing off what the audience would eventually be bidding for, she began rubbing her hand mic up and down her front. Suddenly, the words, "Auction off the mic!" shot out of my mouth. She turned to me in shock, then immediately started laughing, followed by, "Oh right! Great idea," at which point she started putting the mic in her armpits and... well, other inappropriate places. Too damn funny!

When it was my turn at the mic, I started out by gushing (and getting emotional) over her Ginger impression, literally calling her "Ginger reincarnated." This, I explained, meant so much to me, for Ginger is my favorite old movie actor. At this point, there was a burst of laughter coming from the front section of the audience. Hudson and I both looked curiously at each other, she glanced over in their direction, looked back at me, I shrugged and said, "I don't know," and she shrugged and said, "Me neither," then urged me to continue. So I do. I told her how great her dancing was and she pointed out that it was all her partner and coach, Forrest. "You can do anything when you're dancing with someone who can lead. Claire can't lead." Much laughter and agreement from the audience and me on that one. I concluded my gushing fest over the Friday evening show and continued with my question. I told her that Bruce had talked about the development of her Liz Freidman character and that the suite was her idea and stuff, but I wanted to know if all of that brilliant bit of business she did was improvised or in the script, cause it was amazing. She stole the show for me... in a good way. She got this amazed look on her face and said that, yes it was improvised, then confessed that when she saw that ep she hated what she had done. However, I assured her that they were wonderful bits of genius. She laughed and said, "Just goes to show how everyone has their own opinion of things." LOL!! "But I'm glad it meant so much to you," she stressed, while focusing those amazing brown eyes down into my blue ones. *HUGE SIGH* I thanked her, she thanked me, and I skipped back to my seat... Ok, not exactly skipped - well, maybe in my head...

Someone commented how wonderful she and LL were at playing each other's roles in Intimate Stranger and asked if she and LL helped one another with it. HL said they did get together and work on some things, but it was really during Ten Little Warlords that she got the most help from ROC in figuring out how to play Xena. Ironically, it's difficult to tell someone how to do what you do. It's easier for an objective person (like ROC) to know and see what's being done with the character. Very interesting. To top off her anecdote she praised LL for her Callisto portrayal and said, "And then all I had to do was..." demonstrating her stoic, serious, intense Xena look out to the audience. Very funny!

Let's see, what other insightful questions did the audience ask... hmmm... Oh yeah, NONE! Naturally, she got a handful of losers asking her for hugs and kisses. She only gave a few hugs and photo ops away - but NO kisses... Until... On the 2nd or 3rd request for a kiss (and subsequent audience response "You give one to them, you give one to everyone," which HL had tried before to explain to people) I - who was fed up with this BS - shouted out "AUCTION A KISS OFF FOR KEVIN'S FAMILY!" This immediately caught on with the 4 rows in front of me until our entire front section was shouting it to her. She got the message and confirmed with the rest of the audience if they thought that was a good idea. She agreed, but of course, while accepting bids, the reality of what she was doing started to sink in and she had to play with it. It got even worse when, just before HL was about to finalize the last bid, a woman in the back yelled out that she had a question. This stopped HL in her tracks and made her laugh. "You have a question?" (There had been several suggestive questions tossed out throughout the auctioning process, so this was kind of the last straw.) However, the woman made a valid point, asking could all the various bids be accepted in exchange for a kiss. To which HL got the idea of a flat fee. Say... a 1,000 dollars a kiss. Everyone agreed to this, so HL invited anyone with a thousand dollars to come up, give the money first, and get his or her kiss. As she waited for people to come, she continued her amazement at the surreal-ness of what she was doing. "I'm a whore!" She had her friend Anita Ellis come up and collect the money, calling her her "pimp." It was too funny.

At first, 3 guys and a woman were lined up at the steps to the stage, to which HL goes, "What? No more women?" Some clever person in the audience shouted, "We're under paid!" HL got a huge kick out of that, "Good one!" At one point, she offered the insight that she found it easier to kiss a strange woman than a strange man. Finally, 2 more woman came forward to make it an evenly split six. One of the guys pretended to faint after his kiss. The first woman was visibly nervous, and HL milked the moment by waiting and letting the woman try to compose herself. Hudson was absolutely amazing! She just stood in the center of the stage facing the steps on the side (profiling the audience), motioned for each person to come to her, paused to let the kissee get ready (as well as herself, I'm sure), not to mention playing with the audiences anticipation (esp. with the female kissees), then gently took their faces in her hands and kissed them squarely on the mouth. I'm sure no one in the room missed the fact that she took an extra amount of time with the 3 women. With one she took so long, and the audience egged them on so much that the woman ended up rapping her arms around HL waist, which of course sent the audience into hysteria!

Holy Shit! I'm very glad that I contributed the initial idea... but good god I would have much preferred to have had a 1,000 dollars to give to the cause!!! *Swoon!*

****
This also from Teyali:

When Hudson Leick came out and did her thing, that crazy thing she does with the audience where she just grabs you and holds you in the palm of her hand, and she agreed to auction off a kiss for Kevin's family, you could tell she was not totally comfortable with the idea of "prostituting" herself, as she called it, and kept joking about how she was new to the "hooker thing" and didn't really know what the logistics were, so she asked this person who runs the charity she usually raises money for to be her "pimp." It was funny and bittersweet. Hudson ended up selling her kisses for 1,000 dollars each, and I SO wished I had that extra K in my pocket because I would have loved nothing better than to have been able to donate money to Kevin's family and kiss Callisto at the same time, but no, others did it for me (for us), three women and two men, and her kisses with the women lingered beautifully, full of love and gratitude and kindness. I was SO moved by her doing that for Kevin. The whole thing just had so many of us in tears. I think Kevin could feel all the LOVE that we generated in that room on Saturday.

****

Very well said Teyali! I agree that she must have felt a bit out of her league in terms of what she had gotten herself into. The hooker/pimp stuff she kept joking about was priceless! And extremely appropriate. What an absurd and thoroughly surreal situation (as she herself pointed out - "This is so surreal," bowing her head in amazement). Nevertheless, when push came to shove, she delivered as only the goddess could - with the most giving of hearts.

That's what is so incredibly fantastic about this group of actors. One thing I remember Alexis saying: He felt so at home on set with everyone. Everyone is welcome in this family and it just fills my heart to over-flowing thinking of the impact the loss of one of our own is having on us all. The weekend started out as a kind of "oh gosh, what can we talk about that hasn't already been talked about," but it turned out to be one of the most rewarding Conventions of them all.

Blessings to the Xenaverse. May it last forever!!

Oh yeah, just before the kissing frenzy, HL did auction off her dress for... I want to say 3,500 dollars, which went to the James Ellis Foundation as per her normal process. So, I say again... Hudson is the most giving human being...

I'm trying to think of more stuff to share with you about HL's stage appearance but I can't think of any more right now. There is more to tell though, so maybe I'll add more later on. However, the magical 6 kisses certainly over-shadowed the rest of our Hudson experience. So I think I'll leave you with that for now.

They scheduled autographs with Alex, Alexis and Hudson after the memorial and while they ran "The Making of Who's Gurkhan? Part II" video (which is really good, btw). Alexis was terribly sweet and chatty with people (though thankfully not taking too much time with each person). I thanked him for being a "breath of fresh air" that afternoon. I think he was very grateful to hear this and added a "Thanx!" to the personalized autograph he signed on my picture.

Poor Alex! I told her she would always be my favorite Valentine, to which she quietly thanked me with a loving smile. Her brave efforts that day truly broke my heart. You could see how drained she was. Of course, she was a true professional, and graciously greeted and thanked everyone for his or her sweet words. However, out of respect I think we all kept her line moving quickly.

Then on to Hudson... That afternoon she spoke about how she's been grateful for the time off, but she wants to start acting again. She's not giving up on her yoga, and she may still teach, but she also loves to perform. So she's gotten new headshots taken and is getting back into the auditioning cycle. I was so thrilled to hear this (as were we all!) that when I went up to have her sign my picture I told her how glad I was she was going to be acting again. "People need to see your work. You're amazing!" To which she sincerely replied, "Thank you for that." I then quickly scurried away as they were rushing everyone through the lines in order to be done before the play.

On my way up to the hotel room, I started to cry. Looking at Hudson's picture in my hand, remembering all she had said and done that day, thinking of Kevin... I just broke down and cried. I got to the room, alone, and cried more openly, rinsed off my face, then joined everyone out front and waited to go into the play...

Copyright - Sarah Mears, 2/19/02; Edited: 2/27/02
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